Friday, November 15, 2013

"On average, an earthquake of magnitude 6 or greater happens somewhere in the world every three days. Mostly, they happen underwater, and we hardly take notice. It is only when the earthquake comes to us, upending the streets and houses and trees we think of as ours, that they command our attention. But the earth...is always busy."

5 comments:

I almost agree with you. Despite the promise of a clever plot involving twins and ESP, the book does continually describe the day-to-day of a suburban housewife who happens to be reliably annoying throughout the whole book. I also thought that the story took an unnecessarily sharp turn at the end and became a bonafide soap opera. However, I have a however.

My favorite parts of the book happen early, revolving around Kate and Vi's childhood. They have a cruel mother and a hapless father, and the life that is created inside their childhood home is peculiar and sad (like the dinner making ritual). There is a scene in which the father takes Kate out to ice cream while she is still in junior high school, and with barely any words exchanged between the two of them, Sittenfeld develops one of the most touching and heart breaking scenes I've recently read. The book may be worth it for that scene.

Every time I come to your blog and see new content it becomes a spectacularly great day! And this instance is no different! I love this quote you chose to share from this book. I'm now off to look into this said book and see what it's about! I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks so much for sharing!